5 Android apps to get more out of your music

Automatic Tag Editor (Android)

Today, smartphones and tablets have become extremely popular devices for streaming music directly to a hi-fi system, via a network music player, hi-fi network stereo receiver (or home cinema amplifier) or to a wireless speaker. Since the Android ecosystem is a lot more open than the iOS ecosystem, many users copy audio files to the internal memory of their smartphones without the album art or without information regarding the name of the artist and the name and genre of the album.

The result: the music player app used is unable to correctly index these files, which makes browsing difficult. It is possible to solve this problem with a bit of foresight, namely by using a tag (metadata) editing app to manage files before adding them to a smartphone. Unfortunately, whether running Windows or Mac OS, this app cannot process files which have already been added to a smartphone or tablet (as the Android Media Transfer Protocol does not allow this).

This is where Automatic Tag Editor steps in to allow users to edit and correct tags for the audio files already stored on a smartphone. The app suggests album art and album names based on the name of the file, and it draws from an Internet database to add information to incomplete tags. The data selected by the user is then added to the audio file.

It is worth noting that for Android 6.0 and above, it is necessary to remove the write protection on the microSD card (if used for storing music) in order to allow the app to access it. This can be accomplished by configuring Android to enable the Documents app.

Bubble UPnP (Android)

The go-to app for listening to audio files stored on a NAS, shared on a DLNA network, saved in the cloud (Dropbox, Google Music, etc.) or available on Qobuz or Tidal. The Bubble UPnP app acts as an interface between these servers and services and any DLNA amplifier, network music player or Wi-Fi-enabled wireless speaker. Bubble UPnP can be used with an Android portable player to listen to music shared on a network via headphones. Audio transmission is lossless. To benefit from the full range of functions, it is necessary to purchase the paid version of the app.

Neutron Music Player (Android)

This is one of the leading Android music player apps. Compatible with most lossy and lossless audio formats, Neutron offers an advanced decoding mode and handles 64-bit files. In addition to playing back files stored on a device?s internal memory or a microSD card, Neutron Music Player lets you listen to files stored on a DLNA server and is compatible with the FTP, Samba and WebDAV transfer protocols.

In short, the principal file sharing protocols are all handled. In addition to a wide variety of settings (audio driver, latency manager, resampling, equalizer, etc.), Neutron Music Player handles external USB DACs and offers bit-perfect transmission. A trial version allows users to enjoy this app before deciding whether or not to purchase it for long-term use.

Bandsintown (Android et iOS)

What would you say to an app that keeps tabs on concerts in your area and gives you a heads up when your favorite artists are in town’ Bandsintown lets you track artists and even buy tickets online.

Sound Analyzer

Do you keep the volume turned down low, or do you crank it up as far as it can go? The Sound Analyzer app uses the microphone of your smartphone or tablet to measure the sound level in your listening room.

An audio spectrum analyzer with an integrated spectrogram conveys information on the levels of bass, mids and highs. Lastly, you can calibrate the microphone of your smartphone or tablet directly via the app.